Welcome to this edition of Weekend Walkabout. In this post, we visit India Thailand to see a ‘possible competitor’ to a space elevator, then journey to Japan to see the latest with our favorite anime series, Gundam, and then wind up in what can only be described as “Fantasy Land”. There’s also a programming note concerning this blog and Facebook. And without further ado…
A new “lift system” has been demonstrated in India Thailand and it is just awesome. Frankly, I don’t ever think it will be a competitor to the space elevator 🙂 but it ranks pretty high on my cool-o-meter. Make sure you watch it to the end…
At the very end, when all of the pieces are falling, it reminded me of one of the qualifying runs by the Kansas City Space Pirates at the 2007 Space Elevator Games.
Next up is a stop in Japan. If you’re a fan of Anime, you almost certainly know about Gundam. This started as a TV series in Japan in 1979 and now has grown to be much more than that. According to Chris Beveridge, who knows much more about these things than I do, something very cool has happened:
While fans of Gundam Build Fighters Try have been treated to a proper simulcast for that series and its previous incarnation, fans of Gundam Reconguista in G haven’t made out as good. But that’s now managed to change some as the series has begun streaming on the official Gundam Info YouTube channel with English subtitles (as well as streams in other territories/subtitles). The addition comes as about twenty-two episodes have been broadcast in Japan since it’s debut last year.
Chris tells us that the plot concept of Gundam Reconguista in G is:
The Universal Century, an era of historic migration into space and space wars has ended, and some time has passed. Now, mankind believes that their pursuits and prosperity will continue on peacefully into the new era, the Regild Century (R.C.)
R.C. 1014. The Capital Tower is a space elevator which towers over the land connecting Earth to space. The tower’s purpose is to bring down Photon Batteries from space that power the Earth, and as such is perceived as a holy place…
Read more about it here.
Finally, we wind up in “Fantasy Land”. The baseline model for today’s concept of a Space Elevator was defined in the book by Dr. Brad Edwards and Eric Westling; The Space Elevator: A Revolutionary Earth-to-Space Transportation System. If you want to understand how a space elevator could work in the real-world, this book is a must-read. I’ve often referred to it on this blog.
However, it appears that this book has become worth its weight in Gold. Longtime Space Elevator Blog reader Paul R. recently sent me this snapshot from Amazon:
When I checked this item yesterday, this price was still advertised. Just to let everyone know, I have a copy that I will sell for just $1,999.99!
Finally, some programming notes. I have killed, once and for all, with a wooden stake to the heart, the “Subscriber” function for this blog. I’ve tried it twice now, but all I get are registrations from spam-bots and it’s just a waste. So, if you want to subscribe to this blog, you’ll need to do it via RSS or…
There is now a Facebook page for this blog. Yes, I’ve gotten with it with technology that’s only several years old 🙂 but still is relevant. “Like” The Space Elevator Blog on Facebook and you’ll get a notification every time a new post appears on this blog – Thank you!
Hat Tip to Dr. Peter Swan, president of ISEC, for the URL of the new Indian Thai “Space Launch system” and to reader Paul R. for letting me know about the “greatly in-demand” Edwards-Westling book – thank you both!
09Mar2015 Update – Thanks to reader Bob Munck for pointing out that the “space lift” is from Thailand, not India and also that they are called “Girandola” – you learn something new every day…
I love those girandolas, and this is one of the best videos (though the ones where they go out of control and rampage across the landscape are pretty good too). I have to tell you, however, that they’re from Thailand, not India.
Thanks Bob – I’ve updated the post accordingly…